The German Play

This play was written in 1944 by one of Germany’s most famous playwrights and centres around classism and wealth divide, inspired by Brecht’s experience with communism, he himself being a Marxist and choosing to live in East Berlin during the reign of the GDR. This play would be a challenge for anyone, its full of drama, romance, complicated character developments, and political messages, but for the SPGS cast it was even trickier. Of the students who took part, only some are drama students and none are yet fluent in German! Because of this, it was challenging to learn lines and even more of a challenge to deliver them convincingly. That being said, the cast has really come together through this process and the shared experience of looking pretty strange in 13th century German peasant costumes!

Through this experience I certainly found myself picking up some more unusual vocabulary, if ever there comes a day I need to propose in German I’ll be well prepared. Just spending more time trying to learn and speak my lines increased my understanding of how German is supposed to sound, making it feel just that little bit more natural. The play was also an excellent way to learn more about German culture through theatre, whilst being immersed in the thrilling story of the The Caucasian Chalk Circle. Overall, the cast and directors put in so much time and effort and this truly came across, as the hard work surmounted in a fantastic and thoroughly enjoyed performance.

Caitlin (VII)